Environment

10/11/2013

Images from Peru where the Pastoruri glacier is one of the fastest receding glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range according to a 2012 paper by the University of Texas and the Huascaran National Park.

Peru
is home to 71% of the world’s tropical glaciers, which are a source of
fresh water for millions, but 22% of the surface area of Peruvian
glaciers has disappeared in the past 30 years alone, according to The
World Bank. Environmental issues were under the spotlight during a
working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
who met in Stockholm from September 23-27, 2013.

Leading
climate scientists said they were more convinced than ever
that humans are the main culprits for global warming, and predicted the
impact from greenhouse gas emissions could linger for centuries. The
IPCC said in a report that a hiatus in warming this century, when
temperatures have risen more slowly despite growing emissions, was a
natural variation that would not last. It said the Earth was set for
more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels from melting ice
sheets that could swamp coasts and low-lying islands as greenhouse gases
built up in the atmosphere.

REUTERS PHOTOS/Mariana Bazo

Water drips from an icicle at the leading edge of the Pastoruri glacier in Huaraz, September 19, 2013.

A lake formed from melt water from the Pastoruri glacier, as seen from atop the glacier in Huaraz September 19, 2013.

Tom Rodriguez, a mountain guide and volunteer at Peru's Glaciology Unit, checks meteorological instruments used to measure climate in front of Huascaran, Peru's tallest mountain in Huascaran National Park in Huaraz, September 18, 2013.

A quenual or paper-bark tree is seen near Llanganuco Lake, which is filled with glacial meltwater, at Huascaran National Park in Huaraz, September 18, 2013.

A sign shows the altitudes of the Pastoruri montain and glacier, while red tape prohibits closer access, along the Climate Change Route in Huaraz, September 19, 2013.

Tourists visit the Pastoruri glacier along the Climate Change Route in Huaraz September 19, 2013.

A view of a glacier on the flank of Chopicalqui montain in Huascaran National Park in Huaraz September 18, 2013.

An ice cave at the leading edge of the Pastoruri glacier is seen in Huaraz, September 19, 2013.

07/26/2013

A dancer in Mongolia costumes performs in Xiangshawan Desert, also called Sounding Sand Desert on July 19, 2013 in Ordos of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Xiangshawan is China's famous tourist resort in the desert. It is located along the middle section of Kubuqi Desert on the south tip of Dalate League under Ordos City. Sliding down from the 110-metre-high, 45-degree sand hill, running a course of 200 metres, the sands produce the sound of automobile engines, a natural phenomenon that nobody can explain. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

07/24/2013

This picture taken on July 23, 2013 shows people watching on the edge of the Xiaolangdi reservoir as Yellow River floodwaters are released for the second time since the end of June in Xiaolangdi, in central China's Henan province. At least 295 people have been confirmed dead or missing after rainstorms and Typhoon Soulik hit China, causing floods, landslides and buildings to collapse, the government said on July 15. PHOTOSTR/AFP/Getty Images

07/22/2013

Family members console a woman who lost her daughter in a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in Minxian county, Dingxi, Gansu province July 22, 2013. The earthquake in China's western Gansu province killed at least 89 people with hundreds injured as many homes in affected areas collapsed, state media said on Monday. REUTERS/China Daily

07/11/2013

An excavator moves villagers away from a flooded area during heavy rainfall in Yingxiu, Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, July 10, 2013. More than 300 hundred people were evacuated in Yingxiu after roads connecting the township to the outside were cut off by floods and landslides. Picture taken July 10, 2013.

06/20/2013

Check out this dramatic series of images from High River, Alta., as floods washed through southern Alberta. Kevan Yaets crawled out the back window of his pickup truck with his cat Momo as flood waters swept them downstream and submerged the cab after the Highwood River overflowed its banks. Photos by Jordan Verlage of The Canadian Press.

05/15/2013

A boy carries plastics sheets to use as shelter at a Rohingya internally displaced person (IDP) camp outside of Sittwe, May 15, 2013. Authorities in Myanmar struggled on Wednesday to evacuate tens of thousands of people, most of them Rohingya Muslims, before Cyclone Mahasen reaches camps in low-lying regions that have been their home since ethnic and religious unrest last year.

04/24/2013

The winners have been announced for the 25th annual National Geographic Traveler photo contest — featuring some stunning pictures of people, places and things from around the globe. They're still taking submissions, for all you globe-trotting photographers. Here is a selection of our favourites that have already been entered:

A fisherman casts his net on Bira Beach in Indonesia. Dody Kusuma photo

Mikael Ande, a child of Sami reindeer herders, takes a break indoors after a long, cold day of rounding up the animals for vaccinations and slaughter. Children of reindeer herders learn to handle these animals and the land they thrive in from infancy — young Mikael here knew far more about the ways of nature than I could ever hope to learn. Michelle Schantz photo

I found this girl in a monastery in Jakar, posing at the door of the main entrance to the chapel. Juan Abal Lopez photo

A scientist climbs out of an ice cave formed by volcanic vents near the summit of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. Alasdair Turner photo